You've Got An Attitude Problem (Stumbling blocks, missing limbs and Dyspraxia) (Mark 9.38-50, James 5.13-20)

 

Writing this sermon the term ‘stumbling block’ kept coming into my mind so I’m going to run with it.

Can you think of something that’s been a stumbling block to you? Something or someone that’s stood in your way?

As someone who is blessed with the hand eye co-ordination of a blind sloth, stumbling blocks are something that I regularly have to deal with. In fact if you chopped off one of my hands when I stumble, I doubt it would make much difference.

I have a hand-eye co-ordination disability called ‘Dyspraxia’ or as it was called when my dad was little ‘clumsy child syndrome.’ It affects my hand-eye co-ordination, my speech, and my fine and gross motor skills. I don’t mean the difference between a BMW and a Nissan Micra, I mean small and large movements.

So stumbling is something I’m used to.

But also other people’s attitudes have been a stumbling block for me too, and I’m sure all of us can think of examples, and here’s one from my experience.

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was once a High School Student who was rubbish at sport.

(I think you can guess who this is.)

I couldn’t hit a barn door with a football, and as a boy it was an expectation that I should like sport, and be good at it. As someone who was always small, and not into confrontation or being aggressive I didn’t naturally flourish in that environment.

It became a twice weekly ritual humiliation. I was ridiculed by the students, and also by the teachers through their attitude.

One particular time I said to my teacher ‘Sir I don’t want to play football, is there something else I could do?’ As I knew that I would be ridiculed.

‘Yes.’ He replied ‘you can run around the field.’ This was something they usually did to punish people. So I was punished when I hadn’t really done anything wrong.

They caused me to stumble, and for years I didn’t exercise because I had these terrible memories in my head. I don’t like exercise, I thought.

It wasn’t until I went to Theological College in my mid twenties, that I managed to play football for the first time with a team of people that didn’t ridicule me, or make me feel rubbish and stupid. I discovered that I actually quite like exercise, and eventually found a form of exercise I enjoy.

Here’s another example from someone else’s experience.

Someone I know, we’ll call him Jeremy went to a Catholic School. Jeremy wasn’t a Catholic.

At his school they would regularly have the school mass.

Jeremy wasn’t allowed to take communion, because he wasn’t catholic.

One time he was falsely accused of taking one of the wafers at Mass. The teachers thought he had taken it. He was marched to the headteachers office and was interrogated for this ‘offence’, of taking a communion wafer.

He spoke about how awful it had made him feel, how damaged and unworthy he felt. How he was falsely accused and how it made him see the institution of the church and Christians as cruel, unfeeling and legalistic. It turned him away from the idea of a loving God, or that Christianity had anything to offer him.

Can you see the similarities?

 

I’ve had dozens of these conversations with people in my collar, who share similar experiences either at school or as a child in church. I personally can’t imagine denying communion to anyone who wanted to take it.  

I was put off exercise, luckily I found a way to like it. But many after they’ve been treated so badly, don’t find a way back to faith.

The way Christians treat others, I think is the biggest stumbling block to people coming know the love of God.

Our attitude matters. That’s what both of these Bible readings today are about. It’s what Jesus constantly challenges us about. Our attitude to others and ourselves are both important, because they won’t remember what you said, they’ll remember how you made them feel.

I feel really fortunate to be in this community.

From the moment I started here I’ve felt really welcomed and cherished, and I hope that anyone who comes here would feel the same. I think that’s something we try to do isn’t it? Being a church for those who are new and old, those who know what they believe, and those who aren’t so sure. That’s the community I want to be in.

Our attitude has two parts to it. Our Attitude to others, and to ourselves. You can see Jesus talking about both of these things in our Gospel reading. Roughly speaking it’s divided into two parts.

Vs. 38-42 are about duty and mutual charity. Being charitable towards others in our attitude. Vs. 43-50 are about ourselves, personal discipline as disciples.

I like the juxtaposition of this. We must be charitable to others in what we say think or do, but stricter with ourselves. Be disciplined. I don’t think God requires us to beat ourselves up, but we should think about our actions and attitudes. How what we say and do can cause others to stumble.

There’s a lesson in discipleship here.

We like to put things in neat boxes. This is in and this is out. These people are saved, those are not. We love to categorise people and things, it’s part of human nature. It’s a way for us to feel in control.

But the church isn’t called to be a club, and we fail so disastrously at that as a national church. John says to Jesus ‘Um, we saw some people doing something good, and they’re not even Anglican! So I told him to stop doing it, because unless he’s got a bishop’s license, then they shouldn’t be doing that.’

I can imagine Jesus sighing and saying to John.

‘Don’t stop him. If they’re something good in my name, how can they be bad? Clubs don’t matter.’

If anyone causes someone who does or could come to believe in me to stumble or fall away, that’s so bad because not only does it hurt me, it hurts you too.

They won’t remember what you said, they’ll remember how you made them feel.

I still remember the tears streaming down my face, as I was forced to run. I remember how my legs felt, I remember the humiliation of being laughed at, and that happened nearly twenty years ago.

Imagine how it feels to be told you are bad, or sinful, or falsely accused. Imagine if the church, which is supposed to nurture you, and help you to know God, only tells you that you are wicked, or you’re not worthy of communion, or you can’t be involved because you’re not in the right club.

That’s the real source of damage to the Christian faith. That attitude is what blocks people from knowing God.

So friends, let us strive to be a community that nurtures, and a national church that nurtures too. Regardless of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity or any other reason.

Let us put aside our need to categorise and be a club. Let’s not cast people into a living hell, with millstones around their necks.

Let’s press on, to a brighter future, where as disciples of the true and living God we bring life to all around us, through our deeds, our actions and our words.

Amen.

Photo by Dominika Roseclay from Pexels Preached St Luke's New Catton, 26/09/21